COSMIC CENTURY

At the fall of 72' Berkers left Wallenstein and recorded his own, Folk-oriented album ''Unterwegs'' on Pilz with the support of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser.He went insane during the recordings and his parents moved him to a psychiatric hospital.He died prematurely in 1988 due to cocaine overdose.Back to Wallenstein, now Kaiser decided that it would be good for the band to record an album along the lines of The Cosmic Jokers, a Kraut/Kosmische Rock band, in which both Dollase and Grosskopf were involved since 1973, playing alongside Klaus Schulze.New bassist Dieter Meier was recruited and they added also violin player Joachim Reiser in the line-up.Kaiser moved the band to his own Kosmische Musik label and the album ''Cosmic century'' was released in 1973.

I fail to detect the cosmic feeling of the album, instead I can see a band slowly moving away from the combination of Kraut and Symphonic Rock stylings for a more conventional Symphonic Rock sound akin to PELL MELL, as detected in the 21-min., 3-part epic opener ''The symphonic rock orchestra''.Wallenstein's sound had become soft, refined and polished with lots of piano interludes/preludes and the dominant presence of Reiser on Classical-based violin runs.They still retained some of the classic KING CRIMSON elements in the smoother lines, featuring melancholic singing and orchestral keyboards, the rest of the track following the typical Teutonic side of Symphonic Rock with some interesting guitar moves, tons of acoustic piano and a few impressive rhythms.There are plenty of good interplays with Reiser's violins and the only thing resembling a bit to a cosmic atmosphere is a good bunch of experimental synth flashes.Maybe the flipside contained some surprises for the audience of deep, Kraut/Electronic Music, but soon things will dissapoint anyone expecting such leanings.In fact the music is still grounded in lush Symphonic Rock arrangements with a combination of laid-back and bombastic, Teutonic-styled textures with full-blown keyboards, piano and guitars and less emphasis on Reiser's violin work.''The cosmic couriers meet South Philly Willy'', a title which points to something extremely Kraut-ish, even contains some rockin' guitar leads out of the progressive prespective and has a nice, early-70's psychedelic vibe along with a touch of Jazz-Fusion in the jamming intrerplays.

So no Kosmische Rock in here, this is cool Symphonic Rock in the vein of PELL MELL, missing something from Wallenstein's early character, but offering some nice and well-crafted prog arrangements.Recommended.

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